Review on 💻 MiniStation Extreme Portable HD PZN2 0U3B by Buffalo by Chris Pollreisz

wow. It took a little while to understand this drive and get it working. There is a small setup (download, installation, configuration). The documentation leaves a lot to be desired. However, the tech support team spent almost 20 minutes helping me which is why they support their product. The hard drive is delivered unencrypted. You start the disk encryption software. You can use the password or the provided key card or both. Once encrypted, it behaves like two independent drives (unlocked and locked). When you first plug in the drive, it will be in an unlocked state and named UTILITIES (see image). This is the unencrypted page with a bunch of folders and files that have the unlocker installed. You run the unlock utility (OPEN_HS.exe) to unlock the drive. After unlocking, the default drive name is HD-PZNU3 and your folders and files are now accessible (see image). You can rename the drive (I changed mine to Buffalo). Now use the drive like any other. CAUTION that screen saver or hibernation settings can re-lock the drive, which can corrupt large and long backups. There are settings to prevent re-blocking (see fig.). When switching between unencrypted and encrypted, the drive will be reformatted. The key card works fine. You put the key card on top of the disc when you run the unlock program. Tech support said I can leave the card on the hard drive so it unlocks instantly. Although the card key remains on the drive, the security feature is removed. I copied almost 800GB from an external drive to this external drive and monitored the speed using task manager (see image). This drive was slower, but it was writing while the other drive was reading. The built-in cable is short but includes an 18" USB extension cable. Without the extender, that actually leaves about 3 inches of usable cable, so placement would be very close to the USB port. Another issue with the cable is that it exits the side (when the drive is lying flat) and has to be rotated up and down to connect to a top-port USB hub (see image). Also, the cable is flat so it has some forced directivity built in. My other external drive USB cable is round and much easier to connect. Updated 2017-04-22. frequent and required re-authentication, it was announced that the Buffalo drive would expire every 10 minutes. And that's a security feature. Luckily the keycard can be left on the device, but you still need to start/run the log in exe. Please note that in Windows 10, when the device enters lock mode, File Explorer also closes. Therefore you have to open every 10 minutes. When unlocked, 175 MB is occupied, of which 20 MB is occupied. It looks like it's read-only as I can't save any files in the remaining 155MB. For these reasons I am reducing the rating to 3 stars. In any case, I will return the device. 2017.04.23 Windows only: There are two additional options that I haven't tried yet. 1) Automatic display of authentication window and 2) Automatic password authentication. Option 1: This worked after a quick install. If the card key stays up, authentication will be performed automatically. However, leaving the card key on the drive partially reduces security if the disc and card key are stolen together. Option 2: I didn't want to leave the card key on the drive, so I moved on to the next option. After selecting this option, I entered the password and now the drive will automatically authenticate itself without a key card. But if the computer and drive are stolen together AND they can crack the Windows 10 login password, then they have access to the contents of the drive. I think I will look for another option as there are too many problems.